Two Birds and a Rust Bucket
by Athenaktt
Summary: COMPLETED. Occurs after "As You Were". Aside from the "Troubles", Audrey was wrong about the boring life of a small town cop. She would never have encounter these problems working for the FBI.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **This story follows "Louder Than Words". I thought about adding it into "Louder Than Words", but then I figured that this story could stand on its own with or without the other story as a setup, so "Louder Than Words" is _not_ required reading. Also I really wanted to use the title "Two Birds and a Rust Bucket".

This story is set after "As You Were".

**- Chapter 1 -**

"Nathan, look out!"

Before he could react, Audrey had grabbed him by the arm and pulled him to the ground.

"What happened?" Nathan asked a few moments later as he pushed himself back up. He looked down at his shirt and casually brushed off a white feather that landed on his shoulder.

"Looks like the seagull tried to escape while we walked in," Audrey said looking back towards the entrance of The Rust Bucket before she waved away a feather that floated in front of her.

"Should I have left the door opened?" Nathan asked knitting his brows together trying to figure out how the seagull got into The Rust Bucket in the first place. Sure the place had a lot of windows, but it didn't look like most of them even opened.

Audrey looked around the restaurant for the rogue seagull, and she found it perched atop a ceiling fan blade looking down at them with its beady eyes challenging the humans to try and get it out of the bar.

"You're finally here," Otis, the bar owner, said standing up from behind the bar counter, which Audrey was sure he was using it as a hiding place from the bird. Audrey didn't know Otis well, but she did know that he skimmed money off his own restaurant and tried to pin it on the Reverend's daughter, so her opinion of Otis wasn't very positive. But she was here on a job, and her job right now was to get that bird out of the bar.

"What happened, Otis?" Nathan asked.

"Someone left the door open and the gull flew in. Now I just want it out of my restaurant! I can't run a business like this," the bar owner said, his face turning red from frustration.

"Since the bird doesn't want to get caught, let's chase it out," Audrey suggested. "First let's open all the windows and doors; and hope another bird doesn't stroll in," she mumbled the last statement to mostly to herself.

Audrey headed for the main entrance, but also kept an eye on the bird, while her partner and Otis went around opening windows that could be opened. When she pushed the main door open, she found that it refused to _stay_ open. She pushed the door a bit harder hoping it would finally lock in place, but it still insisted on closing, specifically, with her still in the way. Just as she was about to look for a rock or piece of paper to use as a doorstop, she turned to find Nathan standing next to her holding a chair.

"Maybe you should try this." He propped the chair he was holding under the door knob, and the door obediently cooperated and remained open.

"I was just about to do that," Audrey said.

"I know. I just thought I'd save you some time," he said with his usual expressionless shrug then he walked over to check the nearest window.

"Thank you," Audrey said not sure if Nathan was secretly mocking her. Mocking her or not, she was sure he was hiding something from her since he had been acting weirder lately, but right now, she had a bird to catch.

In a few moments, they managed to get all the windows and doors opened in The Rust Bucket. During this whole time, the seagull remained on the fan. Then it flew down and landed on the table in front of Audrey, and stared at her with its beady eyes.

"Of course, now that there is a way out, you want to hang out," Audrey muttered at the bird.

As if hearing Audrey's complaint, the seagull continued staring at Audrey then squawked at her very loudly causing her to take a step back.

"Who needs a boss when you can have a seagull squawk at you?" Audrey looked around the room and saw Nathan and Otis witnessing her stand off with the seagull. She rolled her eyes. "I think I've hit a new low," she said to herself.

"Um, Nathan? Since the bird is either enamored with me or wants to poke my eyes out, can you get something to catch it with?"

Nathan nodded and slowly walked towards Otis to ask if there were any crates or boxes in the kitchen they could use to trap the bird. As Nathan and Otis disappeared into the kitchen, Audrey was left alone with the bird, which suddenly spread its wings and flapped it once sending loose feathers into the air.

Afraid of startling the bird into escaping again, instead of using her hands to wave the feathers away again, Audrey just leaned back and blew the feathers away from her face. For this moment, she was very glad that Nathan was not here to witness how ridiculous she probably looked right now. Though him cutting her out of a blanket cocoon was probably worse than this.

The bird remained on the table staring at Audrey and squawked at her again.

"Guys, can we step it up?" she yelled. "Our feathered friend looks like he's ready fly, and he's probably not going to go south anytime soon."

She heard a clatter echo from the kitchen, and then shortly, Nathan appeared with a blue milk crate. Audrey made a face at his choice of a cage, and Nathan only shrugged as if to say that was all he could find before sneaking up behind the bird.

As Nathan made his way towards the table, the bird squawked at Audrey again.

"Hey," she said to the seagull. "That's enough from you. I don't appreciate being squawked at when I'm only trying to help you." Audrey looked up to find that Nathan had reached the table. He had the milk crate held upside down ready to trap the bird. He gave Audrey a look as if to ask her if she was done chatting with her new best friend before quickly dropping the crate around the bird.

"Took you guys long enough," Audrey chided.

"I thought you wanted more quality time with your new best friend," Nathan said.

"Funny."

When the bird realized it was trapped, it began flapping its wings and squawking so hard that it jostled the milk crate. Nathan put his hand over the crate to keep the crate from toppling, but it was not long until the gull tried to pick at his hand.

"Okay, we need to get this guy out of here before it tries to bite your fingers off, Nathan."

"Let's just carry the table out then," Nathan said.

Audrey nodded and moved all the chairs out of the way making a path towards the door for them.

"Luckily this is a small table," She said before moving to standing on the opposite side of the table. "One, two, three." On the third count, they lifted the table together, and quickly made their way towards the main door.

When they reached the door, Audrey kicked aside the chair propping the door open for them to get through. When they were a few feet outside of the Rust Bucket, Audrey noticed that Otis took no time to beginning closing the windows and doors in his establishment.

"Okay, ready?" Nathan asked. Audrey nodded and he pulled the crate off of the flapping seagull. As soon as the seagull was released it flew away squawking.

"Well… that was interesting. What do you say to bringing the table back inside, Steve Irwin? " Audrey said.

"Yeah." Nathan put the milk crate onto the table, and Audrey noticed that the seagull had bitten him, and he was bleeding.

"Oh god, Nathan, the seagull bit you."

He looked at his hand and saw a several bites and scratches on his fingers where it bled. "It's nothing," he shrugged and walked over to the table to help move it back into The Rust Bucket.

"Of course it's nothing to you, you can't feel it," she said exasperated.

"It's just a bite from a bird, I'm fine," Nathan insisted.

"Do you know how many diseases those birds carry? Didn't you hear about the chef that almost lost his arm because a seagull he was trying to save bit him?"

"I highly doubt that these bites are big enough to make me lose an arm."

She gave him a not amused look. "The bird gave the chef some bacterial infection or something."

"Parker, I'm fine," Nathan said firmly.

"Fine," she held her hands up in surrender. "At least get the wound cleaned up before you start touching things."

Nathan nodded reluctantly and followed Audrey into The Rust Bucket.

"Otis, do you have a first aid kit we can use?"

"Sure it's right behind the bar. Got to keep it handy in case of cutting myself with broken or chipped glass," Otis said still closing the windows around the bar.

"Sit." Audrey pointed at a bar stool for Nathan and went behind the bar to find the first aid kit.

She easily found the kit and popped open the first aid box and took out some antiseptic wipes.

"Give me your hand."

Nathan looked down at his hands then at Audrey's hand. He remembered how her touch felt, and this was an opportunity for him to feel her touch once again. He wondered if he should tell her he could feel her, but the look on her face, told him her main concern right now was the bites on his hand.

"Don't be scared. We've already established that _I_ don't bite," Audrey said misreading Nathan's hesitation of giving his hand to her as fear.

She took Nathan's hand, and felt his hand shiver at her touch. She assumed that the shiver was just a natural reaction since despite his lack of feeling; his hand was still in pain. She carefully wiped the blood off his wounds and put bandages around his three fingers that all had bite marks on them.

When Parker had taken his hand into hers, Nathan could not prevent his hand from shivering from her touch. Every time he touched Parker's hand, it was like a sudden rush of sensation from his nerves to his brain. It never failed to surprise him. As Parker tended to his injuries, he tried to remember how every touch felt and how cool Parker's fingers felt, but since Parker was such an efficient nurse, she managed to patch him up in a couple minutes. He almost wished he had a couple more bites on his hand so she would tend to his hand a bit longer.

"There all done," Audrey said and patted his hand. "That wasn't so bad."

"I guess not." He looked at his hands, and he felt like he was in grade school again where he usually had at least three Band-Aids on his person.

He looked over at the door to see that Otis had brought in the table they took outside, and was straightening up the chairs again. "Since Otis seemed to have the Rust Bucket back to normal, want to grab some pancakes?" he asked hoping the thoughts of pancake would distract Audrey from taking him to the hospital.

"Only if we swing by the hospital first," Audrey said.

Nathan sighed. "I told you I'm fine. You saw the bites they weren't bad."

"No, they aren't bad, but you could get an infection, and I don't know about you, but I like you with both your arms."

Nathan pursed his lips and squinted at Parker trying to think of a way to argue with her, but he knew he couldn't win. "Will you stop harassing me if I agree to go to the hospital for antibiotics?"

"Yes, I will stop harassing you about _this_." When Nathan squinted at her again, she smiled at least she knew that he understood that her harassing him about his welfare did not end here. "Don't be a Moping Molly. I promise you pancakes afterward."

"Promise?"

"Hey, have I ever backed out on a promise?"

"Didn't you break a dinner date with Duke once?" he reminded her.

"Okay, let me rephrase that. Have I ever backed out pancakes?"

Nathan thought for a moment. "Not yet," he said carefully.

"Okay then, off to the hospital we go." Audrey motioned her hand for Nathan to lead the way, and he reluctantly complied.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** I apologize for the long delay in updating. Hopefully, I will get the last chapter up in a couple weeks and not a couple months again. Thanks again for reading!

**- Chapter 2 -**

The pills in Nathan's hand rattled as he read the label on the antibiotics prescribed to him, while Parker sat across from him in the table booth reading the menu. As promised, Parker agreed to pancakes after his trip to the hospital. The doctor bandaged his wounds, but he thought Parker did a better job, but then again it was mostly like he _felt_ Parker did a better job. During his visit to the hospital, Parker had remained by his side the whole time. Sometimes he wondered how Parker would respond when he told her he could feel her.

He watched Parker as she bit the inner edge of her lip trying to decide on what to eat. He didn't need a menu since he always ordered his "usual" and the waitresses here what his "usual" consisted of, which were the best pancakes in town.

"Good Morning, Nate, Agent Parker," a middle aged waitress with rosy cheeks greeted them with a smile. Her graying blond hair was up in a neat bun, but the morning bustle had caused it to come slightly loose. "What can I get you two this morning?"

Nathan gestured his hand out towards Parker to say "ladies first".

The waitress expertly pulled her order pad out, reached for the pen tucked behind her ear, and turned to Parker, who wasn't quite ready, but she put her menu down anyway and smiled.

"Good morning, Clara" Parker said peeking at the woman's name tag. Nathan smiled. Parker was still slowly trying to learn the names of the locals. It wasn't going as well as it should, but she was trying, and he gave her credit for that. "I'll have the Belgian Waffles combo." She pointed to a picture on the menu, which had a tempting picture of an over-sized Belgian waffle on a plate with two sunny side-up eggs and two sausage links bordering the edges.

"Anything to drink?" Clara asked.

"Coffee, black, please," she replied, thanking Clara before handing her the menu.

Nathan raised an eyebrow at Parker's meal choice.

"How about you, Nate? The usual?" Clara smiled at her regular patron. "Or are you going to be adventurous like your partner here?"

Nathan pursed his lips together as if he contemplated being adventurous. "I am going to stick the usual," he finally said.

"Detective Wournos just doesn't know how to live on the edge," Parker said shaking her head.

"One of these days I _might_ try something else," he said. "But I just love the pancakes here."

"You just love _pancakes_," Parker teased.

"We do have the best in town," Clara said proudly. "So how about your coffee?"

"Black."

The waitress smiled. "Back to black, I see."

"Yes, he's finally seen the light again," Parker said.

"I'll have your coffees in a jiff," Clara chuckled as she wrote down the last orders onto the pad.

"Belgian waffles?" Nathan asked when Clara departed from their table.

"What's wrong with Belgian waffles?" Parker furrowed her brows in confusion, for a second, she thought she had done a town _faux pas_ by ordering waffles.

"I thought you were coming for pancakes."

"I did, but then I saw the menu, and the picture of the Belgian waffles looked really good. Besides waffles and pancakes are basically the same." She waved a hand dismissively. "And you already ordered pancakes, I could always get a couple bites off of your plate."

"No, waffles and pancakes are _not_ the same," Nathan said. "Waffles have the eggs _folded_ in not _blended_ in. Also waffle mix has more oil to make it crispier."

"The fact that you know that little detail kind of worries me."

"It does? I thought good detectives are supposed to be observant about minor details."

"Who are you Nursery Crime Detective Jack Spratt? If you haven't noticed, most of our cases haven't involved eggs and cake batter."

"Not yet," Nathan said knitting his brows together trying to figure out if Parker had just made an obscure reference or was insulting him.

"Not yet," Parker agreed nodding slowly, trying not to imagine how the Troubles would cause baked goods to kill people. She shook her had to remove the morbid thought. "Anyway, back to you being Martha Stewart, it's kind of disturbing. I can barely figure out the difference between grilling and broiling something. You really need to get out more."

"And where would I 'get out' too?" he asked.

Parker bit her lip again trying to think of something then she shook her head. "You're right. You're screwed. It's a lost cause. It's not like you can't make your own decisions and just leave this town."

"You know why I can't leave Haven," he said.

"Why not? Julia left."

"And now she's back."

Parker made a face. It was true Julia had left and now she was back in Haven, but she did not seem happy to be back. Then again when Julia Carr returned to Haven, her mother died. There was something about this town that people couldn't seem to leave behind. Including herself. Something about Haven was preventing Audrey from wanting to leave. She kept telling herself it was because she wanted to find out more about her mother, but a niggling feeling inside was telling her that she was involved in the inner workings of Haven more than she knew, and she was going to get to the bottom of it, hopefully, sooner rather than later.

A few moments later, their meals arrived. Parker stared at her over-sized Belgian waffle. "I swear this waffle looks bigger in person than in the pictures."

"That is why this place has the best pancakes in town." Nathan smiled like a boy on Christmas morning as he spread the glob of butter around the top of his equally over-sized stack of fluffy buttermilk pancakes with his fork.

Parker was pouring syrup on each nook of the giant waffle when a beep came from Nathan's radio.

"Nathan, dear?" the radio chirped.

Stuffing a syrupy pancake bite into his mouth, Nathan reached for the radio with his free hand and spoke into it. "Yes, Laverne?"

"We have another bird situation, hon," the dispatcher said mirthfully.

"What kind of bird situation?" Nathan glanced at Parker wondering what kind of bird situation would give Laverne a good chuckle. Although their little encounter with the seagull in the Rust Bucket earlier could be categorized as amusing.

"I hope it's not another seagull," Parker said before taking a bite of her sausage link.

"No, not another gull call."

Parker smiled sheepishly, she had not expected Laverne to hear her comment.

"It's a parrot this time," the dispatcher continued.

"Parrot? There are parrots in Haven?" Parker blurted out.

"The Landing boy's parrot is stuck in a tree," Laverne informed.

"I'm sorry, did you say parrot?" Nathan asked, "or did you mean cat."

"No, you heard right, Nathan. I said parrot," she assured him.

"Isn't that where parrots should be? In trees?" he asked apparently voicing Parker's exact same thoughts.

"Apparently, not this one."

"So my partner and I are supposed to go and catch a parrot in the Landing's front yard?"

"You were always so smart, Nathan," Laverne teased in her raspy voice.

Parker suppressed a chuckle by stuffing another waffle bite in her mouth.

"Thanks, Laverne. We'll get to the Landings' as soon as we can." He put the radio back down, all the while, Parker was looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Don't firemen usually rescue pets from trees?" Parker asked.

"Sometimes."

"So how do you propose we rescue a parrot from a tree?"

"I don't know. Why do you ask?"

"Because 'you were always so smart, Nathan,'" she teased.

"Actually, I think I am going to take a page out of the Agent Audrey Parker book and just make it up as I go."

"Touché," Parker said and reached across the table and took a syrupy chunk of his pancake.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** I just wanted to thank everyone for reading and reviewing. Hope you enjoyed this little story about Haven's Finest. Thanks again!

**- Chapter 3 -**

They arrived at a neat looking white house with a well maintained lawn that had matching fresh cut shrubs along the front of the house. Along the left side of the house were several large trees, Audrey guessed that the parrot was probably in the big shady tree where a little boy of approximately five years stood. When the boy saw Nathan and Audrey walk towards him, he pointed up towards the tree.

"Jabber!"

Audrey looked at Nathan. She assumed he spoke "kid" since she had seen her partner turn into a woman with an exploding biological clock when he was within ten feet of a drooling baby, which Audrey had to admit, was very adorable if they weren't on duty. Apparently, Nathan did speak "kid" since he walked over to the little boy and squat down to speak with him.

"Detective Walrus!" the boy exclaimed when he recognized Nathan. Audrey couldn't restrain a chuckle. Nathan squinted at her before returning his attention to the child.

"Hello, Nick. Where is your mom?" Nathan asked.

As if on cue, the door opened and a slender brown haired woman in her thirties stepped out. She had her hair up in a ponytail, and was dressed like she was ready to head to the gym, Audrey thought.

"Nathan?" she greeted him warmly. "What are you doing here again?"

Again? Audrey mouthed the word to Nathan, who only ignored her. Audrey made a mental note to herself to remember to ask what happened during the last emergency.

Nathan straightened himself again. "Hello, Ms. Landing. We got a call about a bird in a tree?"

The woman's eyes widened. "You did?" she asked then turned to look at her son, who had tilted his head all the way up to look at Nathan, oblivious to his mother's glare.

"Nicky?" the woman said sternly trying to get her son's attention, but the boy continued looking up at Nathan, apparently in awe.

"You're tall," he said.

"Nicholas Stewart Landing!"

This time the boy snapped his head down and faced his mother. "Jabber is stuck on the tree," he said quickly pointing towards the tree again.

"How many times have I told you? Nine-one-one is only for emergencies?"

"This _is_ an emergency," the child insisted. "Jabber is stuck up on the tree, and he can't get down!"

"I'm so sorry, Nathan," Ms. Landings said. "I can't believe he did this again. The last time Nathan got called out here was because our dog Errol wouldn't come out from under the house crawl space," she explained to Audrey.

"He didn't come out because he was scared!" the boy interjected.

Ms. Landings stepped closer to Audrey and lowered her voice. "I think Nick is still acting out after his father left us. It's hard without a man in the house."

Audrey nodded, and then she looked at Nathan, who was busy looking up the tree for Jabber. Audrey hated to think ill of the single mother, but this wasn't the first time they had appeared on the scene and women would be blatantly throwing themselves at Nathan, who was blissfully unaware of the attentions he was receiving. Audrey looked at Nathan. He was wearing his usual gray sweater and jeans. He was a handsome man, so she couldn't really fault the women who swooned over him. The last one was Jess "the witch" and that affair started off fast and ended just as quickly, and now poor Nathan was brokenhearted. And Audrey kind of disliked her for that, but she also couldn't blame Jess either. The things that happened to her weren't normal. It is one thing to overlook a physical default, but having some blind guy's shadow literally try to kill you was definitely something else.

Even though he didn't say anything about it, Audrey was sure Nathan was hurting, and she had promised herself that she would always be there for him since she did owe him her life several times over.

She remembered when she first met Nathan; she was literally hanging off of a cliff in her rental car. His appearance had scared her half to death, but she was thankful for his rescue. Even after they traded verbal barbs and pointed their guns at each other, she knew that Nathan was different from any of the other guys she had met in more ways than one. For one, he was always dependable and always saving her in the nick of time. For a small town detective, Nathan was definitely one of Haven's finest, and because he was so great with kids, he was going to be a hero in this little boy's eyes as well.

Audrey turned to the child and saw he was about to burst into frustrated tears as he tried to explain the gravity of the situation to his mother and Nathan.

She placed her hands on her thighs as she stoop to speak with the child, "Don't worry, kid. We'll get your bird down. Now, why don't you show me where he is?"

The boy reached out and took Audrey's hand, led her to the tree closest to them, and pointed up.

Audrey squinted up at the tree and only saw branches of leaves overhead. She wasn't even sure what this bird looked like.

"Uh, kid, what does Jabber look like?" she asked placing a hand over her eyes to shield it from sunlight streaming through the branches. She wondered if this Jabber was a talking parrot. Maybe he could tell her where she could find him by repeatedly saying "Polly want a cracker" or something.

"He looks like a parrot?" Nick replied not understanding the question.

"Do you know what color Jabber is, buddy?" Nathan came to stand next to Audrey and looked up into the trees as well.

"He's this big." He boy held his hands out at a vague width, which looked too small for a parrot. "He is red and blue and green and yellow and he has beans in him."

Audrey looked over at Nathan. Beans? She didn't know that parrots could have beans. She thought that sounded odd, but then again she was in Haven anything could happen, and she had learned not to question things that happened in Haven, because in a few short months it was clear _anything_ could happen in Haven.

"I see it. It's right there," Nathan said and pointed up into the branches.

Audrey stepped closer to Nathan cocked her head to the side imitating Nathan's position and looked up. All she saw were branches. She squinted and turned her head again. "Do you see it?" he asked.

"Not really," she said and took another step forward and was pretty much standing up against him. Nathan didn't move, not because he didn't feel Audrey. He didn't move because he was frozen in place since she had unexpectedly invaded his personal space and brushed up against him. He felt her hand graze his hand. To resist the urge to touch her again, he took a step back and let Audrey occupy his spot for a better look. That was when she finally saw a speck of bright red. In fact, it was a fairly bright red. "I didn't know that parrots come in that color, she said.

"They do if it's from Ty," Nathan replied suddenly remembering that he was here to find a parrot.

"Ty?"

"You know Ty, right?"

"Tie as in how to tie your shoe? Or Ty as in short for Tyson or Tyrone or Tyrannosaurus Rex?"

Nathan smirked. "Ty as in Ty Beanie Babies."

"Oh, you mean the cute little collectible thingies," Audrey made a face. "And I resent that you assume that because I am a female, that I would know that Ty means Beanie Babies."

"No, I assumed you'd know since you were the big city girl from the FBI."

"I came from Ohio, and I'm an orphan."

"FBI," he simply said.

Audrey resisted the urge to stare Nathan down, and rolled her eyes instead.

"So we're here to rescue a Fisher Price toy from a tree. At least it's good to know it's not the Troubles," she said.

"Relieved?"

"Yes. You don't know how glad I am that I don't have to worry about birds pecking my eyes out today. I don't know how I'd react to a bird apocalypse today."

Nathan only shook his head and returned to speak with Ms. Landings.

"Do you have a ladder we can borrow?"

Ms. Landings' arms were crossed and looked warily at her son, who pretended to be preoccupied with Haven's Finest.

"Yes, it's out in the garage. I'll take you to it. Could you keep an eye on Nick for me?" she asked Audrey.

Audrey nodded and pleaded with Nathan with her eyes telling him to hurry. She had never really been comfortable with people, and because children were miniature people who liked to ask a lot of random questions, it made her feel even more uncomfortable.

When Nathan and Mrs. Landing disappeared into the house, Audrey turned to the boy and found the child looking up at her with big blue eyes.

"Can you save Jabber?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah. No problem kid. Nathan will get Jabber down in a jiffy." Jiffy? Audrey mentally kicked herself. Haven was definitely rubbing off on her. "So how did Jabber get up in the tree?" she asked. Figuring making small talk with the boy would make time pass faster while Nathan went digging for a ladder in the Landing's garage.

"He flew!"

"He flew? And he flew all by himself?" Audrey was hoping that the child's simple description implied that the stuffed animal flew because he was thrown into the tree, and it had not flown up in the tree by its own volition. Because she hated to admit it, but she had seen stranger things happen before.

"Yeah, he flew, and he flew very high."

"Can you show me how he flew?"

Apparently Audrey had said the right words and the boy's eyes light up. He ran over to a little wagon that was by the tree and pulled out a small blue ball that was the size of a small cantaloupe, and began tossing the ball up in the air.

The boy continued tossing the ball up into the air then catching it. "See the ball is flying!" Nick said continuing to make the ball fly, and after each toss it seemed to go higher.

"Yeah, it's flying pretty high," she agreed.

Taking Audrey's comment as a compliment, Nick tried to toss the ball higher, but instead of falling straight back down. The ball arced towards Audrey, who easily caught the ball before it bopped her on the head. "Easy there, buddy."

"Sorry."

"It's okay. So that's how Jabber 'flew'?" She handed the ball back to the boy.  
"Yup," Nick said.

"Okay, don't worry about it. Nathan can get him down as soon as he gets back with the ladder. If he ever gets back with the ladder," she muttered the last comment to herself. "And there he is."

"You seem happy to see me," he teased when he reached her.

"I'm happy because you have the ladder. What took you so long?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Ooh, bored housewife and hot detective?" she nudged him playfully.

"No," Nathan rolled his eyes. "You and your outlandish theories."

"Me and my outlandish theories is what made your dad offer me a job," she pointed out.

"Yes, a job that you haven't accepted yet."

"I'm still warming up to Haven."

"Sure." Nathan easily set up the ladder under the tree, made sure the legs were on stable ground, and began climbing up the ladders.

Audrey watched as Nathan's head disappeared into the branches. When he neared the, the top rung, Audrey stepped up to the other side of the ladder and placed her hand on the ladder to stabilize the contraption.

"Can you reach it?"

"It's pretty high up there." Nathan's voice sounded strained as he took stood on top of the final rung and reach through the branches overhead. "How are you at climbing trees?"

"What?"

Nathan stopped reaching and began to climb down the ladder. "I can't reach it. I need a higher ladder, or I need someone to climb up the tree."

"And that someone happens to be me?"

"Yeah, I can't get through. My shoulders are too big."

"I see. Not only are you a tough guy, but you're too manly to climb trees."

"I thought that maybe you'd like to be the hero." He leaned in closer to her. "Also it is obvious Nick worships you," he whispered into her ear.

Audrey narrowed her eyes at Nathan then looked over at the Nick who stood there looking at her expectantly. She gave the boy an awkward smile then she scowled at Nathan as they switched places, so she could climb up the ladder. When she reached the top of the ladder, she could see that she was still a few feet short from where the toy was located. She would definitely have to climb a couple branches to reach it. Now it made sense why firemen were the men for this job. They had ladders that seemed to extend to any height.

"Are you all right up there?" Nathan's voice sounded a bit distance even though she was probably only 15 feet from the ground.

"Yeah," she replied and tested the closest large branch for its strength and sturdiness and pulled herself higher. As a child, Audrey had climbed trees before, but it had been a while since she had decided scale a tree, and never in her life did she think getting a job in law enforcement would require her to use her tree climbing skills. She tested out the next few branches and continued climbing until she saw the toy parrot.

The parrot was lying on its side its wing caught on a small twig of a branch. Audrey thought about shaking the branch a little and let the plush bird fall to the ground, but she decided that if Nick saw the bird drop to the ground, he might think she killed it. Who knew when it came to kids with over active imaginations?

"Nathan?"

He moved to stand right below Audrey so he could see her. He frowned when he saw how high up in the tree Audrey was, "Yeah?"

"I got the bird. Can you catch it?"

"Sure."

"Okay, let me just get stabilized."

"Just be careful up there."

"Yes, dad."

Audrey moved to get a better grip on a branch which gave her better stability to free a hand and retrieve the bird.

"Okay, look out below!" She called out and aimed the bird at Nathan's head, but he easily caught the bird. She could hear Nick squeal in delight.

"What do you say, to Detective Wournos?" She heard Mrs. Landing voice.

"Thank you, Detective Wournos!" Nick said, although Audrey was sure he called Nathan Detective Walrus again.

Audrey was sure Nathan probably ruffled the boy's head too. Now she had to figure out how to get down from the tree. Climbing up at tree was always easier than climbing back down. Somehow the same tree and branches looked so different when one was looking from the top down. Audrey was sure the branches had moved while she was climbing up. She took a deep breath and tried to remember which branches she used to pull herself up. All she had to do was retrace her steps. She could do this. She had been in much more dire situations that were worse than being stuck in a tree. Besides she would never live it down if word got out that she got stuck in a tree after saving a toy.

Nathan appeared below her, "Are you all right up there?"

"Yeah. I'm just admiring the view up here."

"Right, so how are the squirrels doing up there?"

"They are squirrelly?"

"Okay, when you're done making friends with the local wildlife, come on down. We _are_ still on duty."

"Sure thing, boss," she said rolling her eyes.

Audrey decided to just climb down; she looked at the position of the ladder and calculated that there were at least three branches she needed to step on before safely reaching the top of the ladder.

"Put your foot on the branch right there," Nathan instructed. His voice was a lot closer than she remembered. She took a glance and saw that he had climbed up the first few rungs of the ladder. She followed to where his hand was pointed and began her descent down.

After a few more instructed steps, Audrey felt her feet touch the top of the ladder. She felt the ladder wobble a bit as Nathan took another step down to give her room to descend and to prevent her from kicking him in the face. When she felt the ladder stabilized, she began to move down from the ladder quickly.

Nathan gave her a look, and she resisted the urge to roll her eyes again.

"Thanks, detectives," Mrs. Landing said.

"No problem, I'll just put this back in your garage," Nathan said closing the ladder and carried it under one arm.

"I'm sorry about the call. I'll have to tell Nick not to do it again," Ms. Landing said to Audrey.

"It's all right. We are glad to help. Believe me, after what how we started our day, getting Jabber down from the tree was a good reprieve," Audrey said. When Nathan approached the trio, Audrey clapped her hands together. "Now that our job is done, my partner and I are off to save more birds."

As Nathan and Audrey head towards Nathan's truck, Nick thanked and waved at them as he flapped Jabber's wing vigorously in his waving hand.

"Cute kid," Nathan said when they reached his truck.

"You think all kids are cute."

"And you don't?"

"No, I don't turn into a puddle of estrogen when I see children."

"Sometimes I wonder about you, Parker."

"I wonder about myself sometimes too," she said and smiled, but her thoughts returned to her own identity. Who was she and who was Lucy? She guessed in time she would find that out. She could only hope.

~Finis


End file.
